Liquid distributor



Nov. 10, 1959 R. A. ENGLISH ET'AL LIQUID DISTRIBUTOR Filed June 3, 1957 INVENTOR.

A. ENGLISH. -H. MERRICK.

ATTORNEY.-

United States Patent Office Patented Nov. 10, 1959 LIQUID DISTRIBUTOR Richard A. English and Richard H. Merrick, Syracuse, N.Y., assignors to Can'ier Corporation, Syracuse, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Application June 3, 1957, Serial No. 663,987

4 Claims. (Cl. 239-215) This invention relates to liquid distribution apparatus and more particularly to a slinger construction for distributing liquid over a surface.

The main object of this invention is to provide an improved slinger construction wherein liquid from a sump is fed to a slinger in a positive manner for distribution over an adjoining extended surface.

Another object of this invention is to provide an improved and simplified slinger construction which is relatively small in comparison to the surface which is to be covered with a liquid and which can effectively cover this surface while utilizing a minimum amount of power. Other objects and attendant advantages of the present invention will readily be perceived hereafter.

The present invention relates to a slinger construction for projecting liquid from a sump onto an adjacent surface. A hollow slinger is provided having apertures extending between the inside and outside surfaces thereof. Liquid is positively supplied to the inside of the slinger by suitable means. Suitable mechanism rotates the slinger about its axis so that the liquid which is deposited therein is caused to be projected on to the adjacent surface. The present invention will be more fully understood when the following portions of the specification are read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a schematic general representation of a slinger projecting liquid on an adjacent surface;

Figure 2 is a side elevational view of one species of the invention;

Figure 3 is a view taken along line III-HI of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is an isometric view depicting another species of the invention.

In Figure 1 the general orientation existing between a slinger and the surface to be wetted thereby is shown. The slinger is suitably mounted on a shaft 11 which is rotated by motor 12. A bracket 13, which is mounted on sump 14, mounts motor 12. As can be seen from the drawing, the slinger 10 projects the liquid 15 from the sump on to surface 16. A more complete understanding of the general relationship between the slinger and the surface to be wetted thereby may be obtained from the co-pending application of RichardH. Merrick, Serial No. 656,446, filed May 1, 1957.

Reference is now made to Figures 2 and 3 wherein one embodiment of the present invention is shown. A frustoconical slinger 10, which is made of perforated metal, screening, or other suitable material, has a closed smaller base and an open larger base. A shaft 11' is co-incident with the axis of slinger 10 and extends through a suitable hole in the smaller base thereof to which it is suitably afiixed. The slinger 10' is situated within a shroud member 17, which may be a substantially rectangular box having an open top. The throud 17 is located within sump 14, the liquid in the sump being denoted by numeral 15'. A cone 18 has a base portion thereof aflixed to one side of the shroud 17. Cone 18 is hollow and has a portion of its surface cut away as at 19. Liquid may enter cone 18 from the supply depicted at 15' and then spill out into the inside of slinger member 10' through the cut-away portion 19 of cone 18. It will be appreciated that the slinger construction depicted in Figures 2 and 3 is adapted to be incorporated into some system similar to that shown in Figure 1, and that the other structure of the latter figure has been deleted from these figures for the sake of clarity.

The slinger of Figures 2 and 3 operates in the following manner: Upon start-up of the motor which drives slinger 10, shroud 17 which necessarily must be filled with water to the sump level while the system is quiescent, is pumped out by the rotation of slinger -10. Once shroud 17 is pumped out to a predetermined extent, liquid from the sump will enter the inside of slinger 10 through trough 18, which may be in the shape of a cone having a cut-away portion 19. The flow rate from the sump into the inside of slinger 10' is dependent among other things on the head h, the size of trough 18, and the size of opening 19. Liquid will spill from trough 18 over edge 20 thereof into the inside of slinger 10 which is rotating in the direction of the arrows. The liquid spills from trough 18 substantially along line 21 (Figure 3) of slinger 10'. Centrifugal action of the slinger will throw this water through the perforations in a spray pattern. Since the liquid leaves almost in a direction tangential to the direction of rotation of the slinger, the water spray pattern will be determined by the size of the perforations, the speed of the slinger 10' and the flow rate of water into the slinger. It will also be appreciated that the shaft angle 18/2 and the cone angle 5 are determined by the height of the object 16 to be wetted and by the permissible length of slinger 10'. It will also be appreciated that the tangential speed of slinger 10' determines the drop size of the spray and the velocity of the leaving drops. We have found that an optimum relationship between the permissible length of the slinger 10' and the height of the surface to be wetted is as follows:

w=l sin fi/Z where l=the height of the wetted area. w=permissible length of the cone.

In Figure 4 another embodiment of the present invention is shown. A slinger 10" of generally frusto-conical configuration having a member 22 (which may be cylindrical) affixed to the smaller face thereof is suitably mounted for rotation on shaft 11". Shaft 11" is aflixed to base 23' in any suitable manner so that the axes of shaft 11", frusto-conical member 10", and cylindrical member 22 are coincident. As can be seen from the drawing, frusto-conical slinger 10" is hollow and has perforations or any other type of suitable apertures therein which communicate between the inside and outside surfaces thereof. The base 23' of cylindrical member 22 has a portion thereof formed into impeller blades 23. The entire assembly is positioned relative to the surface 24 of liquid in a sump so that the impeller blades 23 enter the liquid. As can be seen from the drawing, the slinger portion 10" is above the liquid level so that the perforations do not enter the liquid.

The modification of Figure 4 operates in the following manner: During rotation of the slinger assembly, liquid 24 enters the cylindrical housing 22 through apertures 25 which precede the impeller blades 23. The size of apertures 25 in conjunction with the rotative speed, the blade inlet angle, and the portion of a revolution the aperture 25 is beneath the surface of the liquid, determines the amount of liquid entering slinger 10". Since shaft 11" is rotating in the direction of the arrow, the liquid entering apertures 25 flows oil the back or outlet surfaces of impeller blades 23 in the direction of arrows 26 so that it spreads along the inside of frusto-conical slinger member and commences to leave the latter generally along line 26'. Centrifugal force then causes the liquid on the inside of the element 10" to be forced outwardly through the perforations so that it will impinge upon the surface to be wetted, this general arrangement being depicted in Figure 1. It will readily be appreciated that the impeller blades 23 should be positioned at a required outlet angle which will result in the liquid starting to leave the periphery of slinger 10" at a desired point, in this instance along line 26'.

There are certain advantages of the slinger of Figure 4. First of all, this slinger can operate in an extremely shallow sump. Furthermore, little or no shroud is required for shielding the slinger member. It can also be seen that the impeller portion of the structure may incorporate centrifugal action in order to attain a higher liquid rate, if this is desired.

It can thus be seen that the above described slingers are simple in construction, positive in operation, and require a minimum of power to effectively cover an extended surface area with liquid.

While we have described preferred embodiments of our invention, we desire it to be understood that it may be otherwise embodied within the scope of the following claims.

We claim:

I. In apparatus for projecting a liquid from a bod thereof onto a surface maintained in spaced relation to the body of liquid, the combination of a hollow slinger provided with openings extending between the inner and outer surfaces thereof to allow passage of liquid from the interior of the slinger outwardly thereof, means operatively connected to the slinger for imparting motion thereto and a cone-shaped trough member projecting into the interior of the slinger to supply liquid to the interior of the slinger for projection onto said surface, said trough member communicating with the body of liquid and with the interior of the slinger to supply liquid to the interior of the slinger, motion of the slinger moving the supplied liquid through the openings therein in a direction substantially tangential to the slinger.

2. The apparatus set forth in claim 1 wherein the configuration of the slinger is determined in accordance with the formula sin B W-L 2 where W is the permissible length of the cone, L the height of the surface to be supplied with liquid and B the angle of inclination of the slinger with respect to a given horizontal datum.

4 3. In apparatus for projecting a liquid from a body thereof onto a surface maintained in spaced relation to the body of liquid, the combination of a hollow frustoconical slinger including a cylindrical member extending from the smaller face thereof the frusto-conical portion of the slinger being provided with openings extending between the inner and outer surfaces thereof to allow passage of liquid from the interior of the slinger outwardly thereof, means operatively connected to the slinger for imparting motion thereto, a portion of the cylindrical member having a plurality of impeller blades adapted to enter the body of liquid upon motion of the slinger and to distribute the liquid on the interior surface of the slinger the openings in said frusto-conical portion being placed above the body of liquid, motion of the slinger moving the supplied liquid to the openings in a direction substantially tangential to the slinger the blades being adapted to have contact with the liquid independently of the contact between the liquid and the interior of the slinger.

4. In apparatus for projecting a liquid from a body thereof onto a surface maintained in spaced relation to the body of liquid, the combination of a hollow slinger provided with openings extending between the inner and outer surfaces thereof to allow passage of liquid from the interior of the slinger outwardly thereof, means operatively connected to said slinger for imparting motion thereto and means associated with said slinger for supplying liquid to the inside of said slinger for projection onto said surface with the motion of the slinger moving the supply liquid through the openings in a direction substantially tangential to the slinger, said last mentioned means being adapted to have contact with the liquid independently of the contact between the liquid and the interior of the slinger, said liquid supply means including a shroud substantially enclosing the slinger in the body of liquid, said shroud having a first opening for the projection of a portion of the slinger, a second opening remote from said first opening, a trough in communication with the second opening and projecting into the interior of said slinger to provide liquid to the interior of the slinger in relation to the head of liquid present above the second opening in the body of liquid.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Mtzerland Dec. 15,1944 

